Matheran

Just one week into the vacation, and me and sister were bored to death. Moreover my plans of solo outing were foiled…

Soon came Friday 9^th, my mother’s first cousin was visiting us with her family.. Casually mausaji happened to mention his plan to visit Matheran the next day, and asked us if we wanted to join.

We were delighted and accepted their kind offer. And soon we were packing our bags and getting ready for the trip.

Matheran is a hill station near to Neral, I had last went there in 2007 with my cousin’s family.

On 10^th we left home heading to Matheran by our car. I acted as the navigator (Google Maps!).

Picnic Spot

We drove the way well, then came the Traffic on Neral- Matheran Road. As we proceeded further, we discovered this was due to a naka bandi by The Municipal and The Police, apparently there was no parking space at the Dasturi Naka and they advised us to park at a place nearby and take a taxi which took ₹ 80 per head to reach Matheran. We smelled scam. 

We waited for our relative's family to arrive at a space nearby, which looked like a picnic spot.

I dilly dallied around among the trees running here and there.

When our relatives came, we decided that we would park our car there and continue in their SUV. Just before Dasturi Naka, there was a sharp climb turn, we all evacuated the car quickly so that it could climb. After the climb, the tires started smoking, thankfully they did not get cancer.... 

There was a bad stench all around as cars succumbed to over heating. The driver parked the car at Dasturi Naka and we walked there.

We reached by 1 pm.

We hired a coolie for carrying out luggage, and entered the gate.. But we were stopped because we forgot to pay the capitalization tax 😅.

We got the tickets and walked along the toy train tracks heading towards SBI Guest house. 

The coolie though loaded with heavy stuffs walked amazingly fast, my father walked ahead with him to keep up.

Oto-san

Meanwhile the women-folk and children walked slowly.... far behind and mausaji gave them company.

I walked solo in between these 2 groups, indulging in breathtaking view and chirping monkeys, always keeping my pace enough to keep father in view. I clicked many pictures  along the way..

A View Along the Way

After 30 minutes of walking and dodging people we reached the guest house. We were greeted by the housekeeper and were asked for the room number, since mausaji was still yet to come, we had to wait quite a bit, Father had paid the coolie and after having a glass of water he left.

SBI Guest House

Meanwhile I sat down tired in the dining area and glanced about the compound, it was homely and maintained decently... There was a small play area with a swing set and a simple slide. The rooms were upstairs. The Guest house was maintained by a family, with work divided between the husband and wife, into stereotypical roles. They had a kid too.
Soon the other troop came in~
Since it was already lunch time and we had an exerting walk, we decided to have lunch first and then settle for a short rest in our room...
We did not need to wait long for our meal, A homely and delicious preparation was placed before us... we served ourselves and enjoyed!

A Homely Meal

After having a small chat we went up to our rooms. It was spacious and comfortable... There was a balcony visited often by little cute monkeys, who spent their time dilly dallying and wrestling each other. Unfortunately for us kids there was no 4G network there.🤣.... (3G for me, but never mind, I got no data pack, Imma a wifi person..👻)
After a short rest, we proceeded to visit points that were nearby, because night falls in quick here.
We visited Madhav Point.... I was very disappointed with the commercialization levels.... at the point there were "various activity stalls" like rifle shooting, "try your luck" kind of stuff... Pointless things like these take away the beauty and essence of the scenery.
We then proceeded to see another of the nearby points... By the time we reached Khandala point it darkness had started enveloping. The stony stair path went down and was dim. Adults started speculating whether or not we should proceed, but we children vetoed and there we went down with phone flashes on. Within minutes it was a total night fall. The moon looked a beautiful crescent, We took out our powerful binoculars to look at the scenery more closely.
After hanging out a bit, we went back and roamed around the market place which mostly sold leather goods, and the general knick knacks.

We walked back to the guest house, ate dinner and a took stroll around the compound. I sat on a swing and had a long telephonic ( Oh, pardon, I mean mobilic) conversation with a friend.
I was ushered into the room soon, because we had to visit Sunrise point early in the morning.

The next day starts and we get ready to trek to the Sunrise point... The point was a little faraway.. Since it was morning there was no constant irritation of making way for horses, though we   had to keep dodging their faecal droppings. The smell emanating from them destroyed the forest's fresh air.
 Commercialization.
 We reached the point and the sun looked amazing rising behind the horizon.

At Sunrise Point- the place I wanted to jump to

Always looking for an adventure, I soon spotted a big break in the fencing which lead to flat un-fenced landing , I wanted to go there, All I would say is that my tantrums paid off against the elders' valiant tries of dissuasion.😁

We also discovered that this point should also be called 4G point....(Thank you for giving me hot spot sister.). A small path that lead to a village below, I tried follow my heart, but father was against my decision of taking up austerities~~~

Sun at the top, clicked from the place I wanted to jump to

Anyway.. we hung around a bit and I found an
utmost satisfaction in pointing out to my mom village ladies in sarees walking tricky paths as though it was their home.

We proceeded to 2 other points and I always found an opportunity to jump fences undeterred with new found confidence, and my dear father complied in giving me the company for doing the same... and also clicking my photos!!





We then went back to have breakfast.
Mausiji and her children were tired and did not wan to join any further adventures.

Charlotte Lake

So that left behind My father, sister, mother and mausaji, when went to map to check out the points to visit, mother happened to ask someone about the distance, she heard 2 kms and immediately turned her steps to the guest house. Down to 4 people.
The journey remains the same, giving way to horses and walking through the dust clouds they left behind.

We visited Charlotte lake next and spent some time there. The lake was dammed, it looked magnificent with mountains in the backdrop.

Nearby the lake was Cilia Point, no there was nothing about this point that looked Cilia... I still wonder why did it get that name. Amazingly the Cilia Point had no fences, because during Monsoon it's actually a huge waterfall, so we went as close to edge as possible and sat there looking through binoculars. I also happened to ashamedly use some colorful language when a man threw a plastic bottle down the edge. People need to respect their environment more.

We proceeded to more points all quite away from our present  position. When we reached to a junction leading to different points, Mausaji decided to rest and wait there. Down to 3 people.
We went to Echo Point, Honeymoon point (didn't find any moons or honey there 😐) and all. Then we went further to Malang Point, which was quite and isolated given that it was afternoon time and the walk was tedious to there. (yay, no horses!) We stalked a village below with our super powerful, illegal for civilians to own binoculars, and it seemed that a lady from one of the houses down was stalking us back. We exited.

By this time my sister was extremely tired, I wondered why. The last point we visited was Luisa Point. It is supposed to be the best point in Matheran. And when we visited. we understood why, the scene was breathtaking and panoramic, it encompassed all the scenes that we partly visible from other points.
And from a distance I saw an amazing edge, blocked out from steps of public. My eyes zoomed about, and there I found a break in the fence, viciously blocked by pointy branches. I hopped down the stairs then broke away the crook and ran down to face the glory of mountains. The Humongous, The Glorious, The Majestic.

Luisa Point

This was obviously my favorite point, after 4G point.
We unfortunately had to go back to the Guest House... Since it we were quite late Mausaji had already left. My sister had a hard time climbing back, I still wonder why. She did mention something about outgrowing her shoes... well perils of a growing child 🤣

Matheran Station

After reaching the Guesthouse we got know that everyone had left to buy tickets for the toy train for way back. We quickly gobbled up our lunch and went to pack up our stuff.
I had a nap and woke up at the right time to check out and proceed to the station.

We climbed on to the Toy Train. I put out my phone out of the window to click a picture of a tree..... I had put my hand inside at the right time... matter of seconds before it got struck by a coolie 🤣

We reached the Dasturi Naka Station and exited Matheran. We returned to the parking spot by the SUV. Soon we reached our car and made way to home, and I navigated of course... To have a final adventure, at a point I redirected the car through the new Navi Mumbai airport construction site near Uran Taloja Road. We had a first hand view of the baby state of the airport. I was thrilled.... well my parents thought otherwise...
Adventures are love.

We reached home alright.

And I enjoyed trekking~~~